Teammates swing into action to help
Yelich, Arcia deliver with crucial hits
It might not look like it at times, but Milwaukee Brewers relievers Jeremy Jeffress and Josh Hader are human. They are not robots even though they’ve mowed down hitters with machine-like efficiency this season.
So, on a day when Jeffress had a hiccup and Hader was about to have one, their teammates were there to pick them up. That’s what made the hard-fought 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park on Wednesday afternoon one of the most satisfying of the season.
Of the bullpen’s work in general, outfielder Christian Yelich – who turned the game back around in the Brewers’ favor with a huge home run – said, “They’ve been great for us, really. We couldn’t have asked for anything more. Those guys are giving us everything they’ve got.
“They’ve been so good for us, all year. They’re not going to be lightsout every time. But they’ve been very, very good and they’re a big reason why we’re winning so many games. They’ve come into big situations and really locked it down for us.”
And let’s not forget the unexpected and triumphant return of Orlando Arcia. Sent to the minors five days earlier because he wasn’t hitting, Arcia was recalled because of an injury
to Tyler Saladino, who had replaced him but badly sprained an ankle Tuesday night.
So, what does Arcia do upon being thrust into action in the seventh inning after arriving with the game in progress? He takes the first pitch he sees the other way to right for an RBI single that proved to be the winning run.
Yes, baseball can be a crazy, yet an uplifting game.
“It felt good, especially since we got the victory,” Arcia said through translator Carlos Brizuela. “They gave me a few things to work on while I’m down there so I tried to concentrate on that. Unfortunately, Saladino went down. Nobody wants to see that. But now that I’m back here, I just want to help the team win.”
With Junior Guerra continuing his resurgent season with six shutout innings, the Brewers took a 1-0 lead to the seventh. Only a one-run lead, but when you haven’t lost a game all year when leading after six innings (now 26-0), one run can seem almost safe.
Accordingly, it had to be stunning to his teammates when Jeffress surrendered a game-tying homer to the first batter he faced, Harrison Bader. Before that inning was done, the Cardinals would scratch across another run, though an error would make it unearned.
It was one more run than Jeffress had allowed all season, in 27 appearances. He swore afterward he wasn’t aware of his club record-tying string of 23 consecutive outings without a run being scored.
“I don’t know about a spell,” he said. “Giving up a run is going to come. That’s the game of baseball. I pay attention to winning streaks. That’s the streaks I pay attention to.”
The St. Louis lead was as short-lived as allowed by law. Lefty Tyler Lyons was summoned to face Yelich in the bottom of the inning. No lefty hitter had homered off Lyons all season, but Yelich crushed his first pitch off the scoreboard in center, a 441-foot shot that immediately snatched back the momentum from the Cardinals.
“You’re just trying to do anything you can to battle back,” said Yelich, who has been on an offensive binge (.424 over eight games with 12 runs and seven RBI). "Fortunately, I hit a homer and we were able to take the lead a couple batters later.”
After Arcia put the Brewers ahead, Counsell summoned Hader with the intention of covering the final two innings, as he had done several times in the past. Hader cruised through the eighth, adding three more strikeouts to his silly-good total (66 in 33 innings).
But the Cardinals put up a fight in the ninth, and with runners on the corners and two down, Counsell had a difficult decision to make. He could leave in Hader, who was at 33 pitches, to face righthanded power hitter Jose Martinez, or summon Corey Knebel, whose command had been shaky of late. Counsell called on Knebel.
“It wasn’t a matchup call,” Counsell said. “It was just a gut call that Corey was the guy to do it. There isn’t a formula for everything. You have to make a lot of those decisions.”
Knebel again had trouble locating his fastball early in the count and fell into a 3-1 hole. He threw a curveball for a called strike, then blew a 98-mph fastball by Martinez to record his fifth save.
“It was a good feeling to get back in there and have a clean outing and help Hader out there,” said Knebel, who has struggled to regain his form of 2017 after missing five weeks with a hamstring injury.
The satisfying victory capped an 8-2 home stand and allowed the Brewers to finish May with a club-record 19 victories.